Our Brewing Process
Cultivating barley for beer is a challenging and thankless task.
Only the highest quality malted barley can be used and only after it has passed a series of stringent quality tests. Yet, it is a notoriously delicate crop, extremely susceptible to disease and vulnerable to weather stresses.
The brewing process is no less laborious, including a 4 week maturing process. Lagering (as this is known) is like laying down a fine wine - it allows the flavours to mature and produces a smoother, more rounded lager. The carbonation in Hawkstone is naturally produced as part of the process yielding bubbles that are smaller with a softer mouth feel. In total, it takes around 6 weeks to create Hawkstone Lager vs. an industry average of only 9 days.
The result is a unique, quality tasting lager that vindicates the extra time and effort invested: a lager that’s hard to make but easy to drink.
Our Cider making process
Never from Concentrate, never pasteurised Never from concentrate, never pasteurised
The best cider is made by blending traditional varieties like Dabinett, Kingston black, Brown Snout and Strawberry Normans. While they take more care, and yield less fruit than more commercial varieties, their high sugar and tannin levels create a cider that’s full of flavour and character.
Using the fresh juice from apples picked from Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, we make cider from freshly pressed juice only (never concentrate which leads to a blander flavour and is often sourced from abroad) and ferment it in oak vats for up to 6 months using champagne yeast. Finally, we avoid pasteurisation, cold filtering the cider to remove apple and yeast particles.
“I tried Hawkstone, and now I won't order anything else”
”I tried Hawkstone, and now I won't order anything else”